Corruption worse over last five years: Survey

Corruption worse over last five years: Survey

JAKARTA (JP): A majority of Indonesians living in big cities
think that corruption is getting worse, according to a survey by
the Center for the Study of Development and Democracy.

The survey, which was released yesterday, found that nearly 63
percent of people polled in Jakarta, Surabaya and Medan felt that
corrupt practices had increased over the last five years.

The respondents gave an even bigger thumbs down to the
government's drive to eradicate corruption, with a staggering
94.1 percent saying that the efforts were "unsatisfactory".

"People are skeptical about what the government has done,"
Rustam Ibrahim, who led the research team, said.

The center, a unit of the respected Institute for Research,
Education, Economic, and Social Information, polled 995 people
aged between 18 and 56 in Indonesia's three largest cities.

"This survey was conducted to find out what people at large
think about corruption," chief researcher Rustam Ibrahim said
during a news conference to release the poll results.

A total of 600 respondents were taken from Jakarta, 250 from
Surabaya, and 145 from Medan.

Of the respondents, 497 were men and 498 women.

Their education ranged from elementary school (17 percent),
junior high school (16 percent) and senior high school (46.6
percent) to college (10.8 percent) and university (9.6 percent).

When asked to identify the first thing that came to mind at
the mention of corrupt practices, 49.9 percent said misuse of
state money, 34.9 percent said misuse of power and only 6.2
percent stated bribery.

"Our survey is similar to the ones conducted abroad such as
the one by Business Traveler magazine and PERC," Ibrahim said.

The Hong Kong-based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy
Ltd (PERC) has rated Indonesia as the most corrupt country in the
world in its latest survey released early this year.

The majority of respondents (74.1 percent) said the Supreme
Audit Agency (BPK), the Development Finance Comptroller (BPKP),
and inspectorate generals -- all state bodies in charge of
fighting corruption -- "had yet to perform their duties well".

Of those surveyed, 87.6 percent suggested an independent
anticorruption body be set up to eradicate the practice.

When asked to identify the main causes of corruption, 57.4
percent identified "a rotten mentality", 19 percent blamed "lax
law enforcement", 11.5 percent cited "low salary" (for civil
servants), and 10.1 percent said "poor supervision".

The respondents felt that given a bad mentality, the oath of
office that government workers take when assuming their job is
ineffective in preventing them from engaging in corruption.

The majority, or 74.4 percent, of the respondents also felt
that all senior government officials must declare their wealth
and this information should be made available to the public at
large.

President Soeharto in March asked members of his new cabinet
to declare their wealth to him but this information is only
available by a court order in connection with investigations and
lawsuits on corruption that might arise.

Most of the respondents said corruption could be eradicated if
the government was more serious in enforcing the laws, and
government leaders set good examples for their subordinates.

Respondents differed on whether increasing the salary of civil
servants would help curb corruption but "it is not seen as a
panacea", Ibrahim said.

Those polled were asked to define whether certain practices
were corrupt or not. The scenarios included:

* an individual official in a subdistrict office asking for
extra money to process residents' ID cards

* a judge taking a bribe from a defendant for a lighter
sentence

* a banker asking for commission for arranging a loan

* a government official asking for commission for securing a
project

* an employee of an electricity or telephone company asking
for extra money for his services.

The case of a judge taking a bribe ranked the highest (65.4
percent), followed by the subdistrict officer (64.7 percent), the
bank officer (59.3 percent) and the government official (6.2
percent).

None of the respondents felt that an employee of a telephone
or electricity company who asked for extra money for his services
was corrupt.

The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percent.
(aan)